Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is the primary pathogen of mycoplasmal pneumonia of swine (MPS), a chronic respiratory disease in pigs. For the diagnosis of M.hyopneumoniae, the isolation from affected lungs by bacteriological culture is considered the ‘gold standard’diagnostic technique (Thacker, 2006), but M. hyopneumoniae culture is laborious, time-consuming (isolation from field samples requires 4–8 weeks) and frequently culture media can overgrow with Mycoplasma hyorhinis or Mycoplasma flocculare